


Stan's Suit and Jacket

by mythomagicallydelicious



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Freezing, Gen, Grunkle Stan's Backstory, Homelessness, Judah and the Lion - Freeform, Song Lyrics, Stan's Drifter Days, Stan's burn mark, Suit and Jacket
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-15
Updated: 2017-08-15
Packaged: 2018-12-15 20:26:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,706
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11813586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mythomagicallydelicious/pseuds/mythomagicallydelicious
Summary: A song-fic about Stan Pines' life at various ages, and what he went through.





	Stan's Suit and Jacket

**Author's Note:**

> Here's the link to listen to the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AigOUsOEhSY  
> "Suit and Jacket" by Judah and the Lion

**I ain’t trading my youth for no suit and jacket**

Stan, 30, brushes his hair back, tying it off behind his neck. He grabs the scissors and cuts it himself, trying to make the angle less awkward.

Less hair, less problems. It’s uneven in the back, but he doesn’t do tours facing away from those suckers. It’ll do.

Stan finds a clean white shirt from Ford’s storage and shrugs it on, struggling to fit his shoulders into the finer cut. His arms strain underneath, cutting off circulation. He ends up cutting the sleeves off as well, and covering it all up with a bright red jacket. He ties his question mark yellow tie and looks into the mirror. Finally, he looks somewhat like a semi-respectable business owner.

He’s a young man, but for a moment as he stares at his reflection, he feels the weight of all he’s seen and done in his short life, and it’s almost impossible to break away from the mirror. He feels simultaneously 30 and 100.

**I ain’t giving my freedom for your money and status**

Stan is 19 and he’s officially banned from New Jersey. His new name is so fake but so close to his real name it hurts. Stetson Pinefield is trying his damnedest to sell some cheap product in order to make enough to eat and fill his car to leave.

Stan is 21 and he’s been through 3 fake names. He spends the night in jail and it is cold and hard but somehow better behind bars than out in the world. At least in here he knows he belongs.

Stan is 27 and he’s been in jail 7 times, in 3 countries, with so many more fake names. When he’s escaped he’s on the run and he never feels safe. Always trying to make a buck. He’d give anything just to feel at home again.

**So don’t say I’m getting older**

**‘Cause I’ll say it when I do**

Stan is only 55, but he’s been claiming he’s pushing 70 for the last 5 years. Everybody embraces the lie.

Stan is 18 but he lies and says he’s 22. The bartender takes a look at the stubble on his jaw, the bags under his eyes, the strength in his shoulders. He passes back the (fake) ID and embraces the lie.

Stan is 12 and he’s looking out over the shore to the ocean. He’s posing like a hero and spinning a wild story of adventure. He claims to be 18, off adventuring the world just like he’d always dreamed. He holds a hand out to his brother, asking if he wants to be his adventuring buddy. Ford looks at him critically for a moment before laughing, taking Stan’s hand. And embracing the lie.

Stan’s been lying about his age for years. It’s the one lie he can rely on the world to accept. They believe what they want to see, they embrace the lie.

**‘Cause everybody I know, everybody I know**

**Is growing old, is growing old too quickly**

Stan is on the floor, screaming, his injured arm outstretched to the gaping maw of the portal. He’s working feverishly day and night to bring his brother back, but to no avail.

Stan never takes a moment to rest. In his mind he sees Ford frozen in time, being pulled through. His young face contorted in horror, yelling, pleading, “Stanley, Stanley do something! Help me Stanl—.”

Ford hasn’t aged a day to Stan. But Stan has never stopped. Every day he feels the pain of living one more day, one more second. Before he even realizes, Stan is an old man, and he’s barely 30.

**And I don’t wanna go.**

**No how am I supposed to slow it down**

**So I can figure out who I am?**

Stan knows exactly who he is. He is Stanford Pines, Mr. Mystery, to the world. To his family he’s Stanford Pines, the weird guy in the woods who’s obsessed with making money. When he’s alone he is Stan Pines, liar, cheater, con-man extraordinaire. The man who only knows how to break and destroy, who’s never done an honest day’s work in his life, the man who will never stop paying for his stupid mistakes.

He’s one half of a broken set. He’s nothing on his own. He’s a screw-up and a failure.

But he has a mission.

_Get Ford back._

Stan Pines is a liar and a cheat, and he’ll do whatever it takes to restore the name he stole.

He’s a broken man.

**And I ain’t trading my dreams for no 401k**

Stan is 35 and he is settled in for the long haul. Seven years and no luck finding the other journals. He’s spent every spare second teaching himself physics, math, coding…all that other junk. He decided to split his money 5 ways.

 _One_ , money that goes to the portal.

 _Two_ , money that goes into maintaining the Shack.

 _Three_ , money to meet his most basic needs.

 _Four_ , money put away for Ford when he gets him back.

 _Five_ , money for emergencies.

Stan knew his brother could have made millions by now if it weren’t for him. All the money he makes he owes to Ford.

This is not how Stan thought his life would be. But all that went out the window at 17. Now he could only work to make up for his past. Be ready for the future…

**And I ain’t giving this fire for a cold, cold heart**

Stan’s shoulder burn took four years to heal properly. It was some sort of magic burn. Even healed, the pain never fully left him.

The fire urged him on, reminding him of the burden he carried. Reminding him he’d do _anything_ to change it all.

Stan is 58 with a stinging jaw and a burning shoulder. He’s staring at his twin and despite the pain his heart is flooded with relief, pride, and joy. His voice betrays only annoyance and his eyes narrow in anger. The steady flame that has driven him for longer than thirty—no, forty—years has been rewarded with a stone-cold, jagged piece of ice.

And to Stan, it’s still worth it.

**So don’t say I’m getting colder**

**‘Cause I’ll say it when I do**

Stan is 17 and he picked food out of the garbage to eat so he wouldn’t go hungry.

Stan is 19 and being chased out of downtown for panhandling.

Stan spends his 23rd birthday in prison, ignoring the whispers around him in the dark, promising horrors to each other.

Stan is 25 and freezing to death in Minnesota, his car impounded and he’s down to 4 matches and a half-smoked cigarette while the snow falls silent and deadly around him.

Stan is 28 and freezing and burning at the same time. Cold horror mingling with burning flesh at what has just happened.

Stan is in his 30s and he flirts with everybody to earn a little extra. His smiles are wide but his heart is locked away.

Stan is 48 and he’s teaching Soos to box. Smiling a real smile for the first time through the pain of the years. The smile doesn’t quite reach his eyes, but Soos pretends it’s enough.

Stan is 58 and lying through his teeth as he begs his great-niece not to press that button. He has no idea what will happen with the portal. But he doesn’t spare a moment to feel bad for his deception, lying is so second nature to him, his urgency is so much more important than the truth.

Stan may have been burning with determination through the years, but he didn’t feel the cold envelope and warp him along the way.

**And I don’t wanna go**

**Now how am I supposed to slow it down**

**So I can figure out who I am?**

Disowned son.

Estranged brothers.

Weird Uncle.

Mr. Mystery.

Stan Pines.

Liar, cheat, good-for-nothing.

A dead man.

**Some of us surviving**

**Some of us just roaming**

**Some of us just hoping the world will move more slowly**

**And some of us alive**

**We're all gonna die one day**

Stanley Pines was dead. He’d been fading away since the first time he changed his name. But Stanley Pines, age 28, died after years of roaming and hoping and being disappointed. He knew he’d bite the dust sooner or later, he just didn’t think it’d be a lie when he did.

**Yeah some of us surviving**

**Some of us just roaming**

**Some of us just hoping the world will move more slowly**

**And some of us alive**

**We're all gonna die one day**

Stan Pines, age 28, became his brother. He lied to survive. His drifting days were gone. He was rooted in one spot, wishing time would speed up. Barely living, just enough to get by while he focused on everything he saw as more important.

**Yeah, some of us surviving**

**Some of us just roaming**

**Some of us just hoping the world will move more slowly**

**Some of us alive**

**We're all gonna die one day**

Everything he did, everything he worked for, it was all for his family. Stan drifted and struggled and survived. He died. And after 40 years, he finally came alive.

**‘Cause everybody I know, everybody I know**

**Is growing old, is growing old too quickly**

**And I don't wanna go**

**So how am I supposed to slow it down so I can figure out who I am?**

He knew he was now. A few kids and a man that looked just like him told him.

He is Stanley Pines.

Con-man extraordinaire.

Cool Grunkle.

A surrogate father.

The best brother.

A hero.

The world never slowed down enough to tell him that, but it was okay. Stanley Pines, 58, knew exactly where he belonged. He was finally home. He hung up his suit and jacket and followed his dreams. Maybe the world did everything it could to tear him down, first, but he’s always been a fighter. He traded his life away and became everything the world made him become. But finally, _finally_ , near the end of his life, he became himself.

And he wouldn’t trade that for anything.

**Author's Note:**

> I see this song as both the opposite of the life Stan ended up living, but also how Stan's life probably would have gone had he not gotten kicked out at 17. I see him entirely as the "free-spirit" kid who would've shucked off responsibilities and expectations, and done what he wanted. Followed his dreams, not what was expected of him. But instead his entire life was derailed, and he ended up following everything that he probably wouldn't have if he felt he had a better choice. This song is both Stan and not Stan to me. 
> 
> Hope you like it and see what I mean, too!


End file.
